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I’ve been confounded by Asda’s marketing campaign for
Christmas 2017 which has been thrust under my nose every time I open a Metro or
turn on the TV for the last few weeks.
I’m fricking sick of it. That
campaign, of course, is the one promising people (but presumably only those who
shop at Asda) the best Christmas ever.

Best. Christmas. Ever.
I mean - Christ... where do you
go from there? If Asda are right, future Christmases are going to have
scarily big shoes to fill. There’s enough ‘organic’ pressure exerted on people
throughout November and December to enjoy Christmas at all costs without
subjecting them to a marketing campaign that’s focused solely on adding to that
pressure. Come on, Asda - that’s just
cruel! I’m not particularly anti-consumerist around the festive
period. I’m really not. But I really hate the way that after months
of build-up and increasingly intense coercion to invest (in every sense) in Christmas
and all things Christmassy, from the evening of 25 Decembe…

Since 2010, November has always brought with it the first opportunity since the previous December to wrap my chubby little chops around a Christmas-themed sandwich during my lunch hour. As you can tell, I'm something of a lunchtime gourmet when I venture into the office.Imagine my delight when today, after two weeks of eagerly looking, I finally spotted the Christmas butties neatly haphazardly displayed on the chiller shelf in Sainsbury's Local. There was just one Turkey Feast left which I quickly discounted; I never fancy the 'last turkey' of anything in a shop. Thankfully, my greedy little eyes spotted a few boxes of turkey with pigs under blankets left, so I practically shoulder-barged out of the way the dithering shopper in front of me and made a grab for one. I thought it would be a good choice with which to open my Christmas sandwich account for 2017. Turkey with pigs under blankets has been one of my go-to Christmas sandwiches for the last two or three years an…

For a while now, I’ve been increasingly conscious that the design of Law Actually has become a bit long in the tooth. I’ve occasionally tinkered with the look and feel of my blog over the last few years, but there’s been no escaping the fact it was based on a (now pretty primitive) blogger design from six or seven years ago. The last major refresh I’d made to the design was in 2012. Yikes. I made a few minor changes earlier this year when I suddenly remembered I used to do (and quite enjoy) something called blogging. Don’t look at me like that: apparently, blogging simply isn’t such a big thing any more. Despite, the need for a visual change, I rather sadly recognised that it was well beyond my web design skills to produce something half-decent myself. Although blogger templates are available from third parties, they tend to be infested with problems – including advert placements and other awkward elements which are difficult to remove or modify. After a few very disappointing attem…

Ah – ‘close of business’. What a phrase. At least it’s not quite as bad as ‘close of play’. These curious expressions which are frequently bandied about in offices throughout the western world are intended, of course, to mean the end of the working day. (Whatever the hell that is – particularly in today’s world of taking work home, answering work emails late into the evening and sleeping with a smartphone under your pillow. No wonder we’re all quivering wrecks.) A recent case considered this very issue. No – not the quivering wrecks thing – but when ‘close of business’ occurs. The case, for those of you who might be interested, was Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (In Administration) v Exxonmobil Financial Services BV [2016] EWHC 2699 (Comm). The claimant, Lehman Brothers, provided equities and bonds to the defendant, ExxonMobil, under a securities agreement. ExxonMobil sent a default valuation notice to Lehman Brothers, which, to be valid, needed to be received by 'close…

Yep – it’s all a-happening down in Bristol.From the Bristol Post 27/02/17: A woman [called Sian, it seems] claims she was physically sick in the street after a passenger on a First Bus wiped a bogey on her leg. Shocked and disgusted, she got off the bus and told First Bus she "puked in the middle of the street" in a complaint made on Twitter. She said she wasn't sure if the incident was an accident or intentional but branded it "gross" in a series of outraged tweets. "Some guy picked his nose next to me and left a boogie on my jeans," she wrote. Responding to the complaint on social media, First Bus West of England said the incident should be reported to the police as an assault. Sian said she would not be taking the matter any further as it was "just a boogie", instead asking for some complimentary bus tickets. Her request, however, was rejectedWell – booger me. Poor Sian. Not even a complimentary ticket to ride the bus and have anot…

Yes - really. I’ve posted quite a few birthday blog posts over the last – well – decade and, looking back, I always seem to start them by saying that I can’t believe Law Actually has been going so long. (See here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.) Well, now this blog has reached double figures, I really can believe it. It feels like ten years. I started Law Actually as a bit of lark; a creative outlet from the travails of studying law. It was probably my contrarian and rebellious streak coming out, plus a procrastination device to distract myself from preparing for seminars. Ten years later, it feels like I’ve seen it all come and go in the blogosphere. (And I’m getting an increasing number of grey hairs to prove it.) The web and the world have moved on considerably since blogging was considered de rigueur. Now it feels like it’s something more to be ashamed of than celebrated and the sense of community in the ‘sphere has long since disappeared. I think I’ve grieved lo…

(By which I mean, the driver decided to drive on the left but on the wrong side of a dual carriageway.) It’s easily done. Ahem.From Cornwall Live 14/02/17: Shocking footage has captured the moment a Nissan Micra driver was caught on camera driving the wrong way down the busy A30 at rush hour. [Bus Driver Jimmers] Thomas told Cornwall Live: "This little car bumbled past obliviously. I was very lucky to meet it by a layby where the road was wider, it's unbelievable that nobody was hurt." He added that the car had a chance to pull in, but didn't seem interest in stopping. [Wannabe highway cameraman] Jason Griffiths also posted this scary video with some strong language from this morning to Facebook [.]But my favourite response was from Tweeter Adrian Edwards who commented: "OMG just had a near death expeireance we were driving up the A30 and suddenly there was a purple micra coming down the wrong way in the fast lane we only just missed it as there was a van in f…

Michael is a practising lawyer and accomplished cynic from the UK. He’s been blogging since his student days and can’t quite bring himself to hang up his blogging gloves just yet (they’re fingerless gloves, obviously).
He loves fussing over trivialities, seeking comfort from repetitive activities, idly reminiscing and moaning about things.